.BIZ BLOGS

Summer 2013 Marcom News: the Data Haves and Have NotsBy Franklin Walton, Ph.D., Principal, Franklin Walton LLC; Deputy Chair, Media and Communication Arts Department, City College of New York; Member, Measurement Commission, Institute for Public RelationsFollowing events in the ad / PR world at the end of July 2013 has been exciting and enlightening. And a bit disconcerting for anyone concerned, at least in the short term, about the viability of smaller marcom enterprises, especially …

Can A-Rod Salvage His Reputation? – Time for Crisis Communications 101! By David E. Johnson, CEO, Strategic Vision, LLCOn Monday, Major League Baseball suspended New York Yankees third baseman, Alex Rodriguez for 211 games-through the end of the 2014 season-for his involvement in a doping scandal. Rodriguez is appealing the suspension and able to play during the appeal. His PR response so far to the scandal ranks …

Does Twitter Need A Vine-tervention?By Mary C. Long, Chief Ghost at Digital Media GhostVine is a pretty slick app. Its looping six-seconds create pure awesomeness when done correctly. And its top users experience fantastic promotional results, with top Vines being viewed and retweeted by the thousands.Yes, Vines are funny, edgy, cool — and slowly sucking the life out of Twitter. Twitter is run by some really smart people — really smart, seemingly overworked people who are …

Memo to Old Media: The End is Near (What’s Behind The Washington Post Sale to Jeff Bezos?)By Michael Terpin, Founder/CEO, SocialRadius, Founder, MarketwireStop the presses. No, really. This has been happening so frequently, it should stop being a shock. In the early 1990s, the combination of a 24-hour news cycle (courtesy of the fax machine and CNN) and the speed of online delivery (even through 300-baud modems) got futurists talking about a day when there would …

Changing Gears at JPMorgan Chase as a CSR Strategy EvolvesBy Aman Singh, CSRwire Editorial Director: For the Corporate Social Responsibility Channel“In the wake of the financial crisis, your industry continues to face high scrutiny and low trust. How is society better off because of what JPMorgan Chase does?” That’s how The Nature Conservancy CEO Mark Tercek starts off his interview …

.BIZ EVENTS

IPO Boot Camp 2013 (TODAY & AUGUST 14) A Two-Part, Free Webinar SeriesIPOs are once again in the news. While normally the summertime is a time when the financial community takes a breather, this summer promises to be different and will see a number of companies make their debuts. Some will succeed while others will languish. What separates the winners from the losers? A number of factors, actually; chief among them is preparation. Undertaking an IPO can be …

Recover Your Abandoned Shopping Carts UPCOMING WEBINAR: For the Effective Email Marketing ChannelDid you know that 7 out of every 10 customers abandon their online purchases, resulting in over 300 billion dollars in lost eCommerce sales each year? Maybe shipping costs were high, or buyers wanted to comparison shop. But, if they abandon their cart and don’t return within the first hour, the probability of them returning to complete the sale is reduced by 90%. So how do you win back …

TRENDING TODAY

Older Adults Warm Up to Social NetworkingTech HiveA rising percentage of older adults are using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, according to a Pew study. Forty-three percent of people age 65 and older use online social networking services, according to survey results released Monday by the Pew Research Center. A mere 1 percent of people in that age group were active on social networking sites in 2006. Since 2009, adoption rates for those 65 and older have tripled, according to the report.

Goldman to Axa Ride London’s Crossrail Office BoomBloombergLondon’s high-speed rail project is helping to drive an office-building boom on the City of London’s western edge as investors rejuvenate aging sites like Smithfield Market near future transport hubs. Henderson Global Investors Ltd. is transforming Smithfield, a meatpacking center for centuries, into a sleek office block while a state-of-the-art Crossrail station is built at Farringdon about a minute’s walk north. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Axa SA (CS) and Land Securities Group Plc (LAND) also own properties on the western fringe of the financial district.

Quality Helps Americans Keep Old Cars LongerABCAmericans are keeping their cars and trucks longer than ever, and even with new car sales increasing, the average age will continue to rise, an industry research firm says. The average age of the 247 million cars and trucks on U.S. roads hit a record of 11.4 years in January, the latest figures available from state registration data gathered by the Polk research firm. That’s up from 11.2 years in 2012, and nearly two full years older than in 2007, before the start of the Great Recession, Polk said Tuesday.

Comcast To Send Its Own Copyright AlertsForbesComcast is reportedly planning its own anti-piracy measures in a move that could potentially sideline the Copyright Alert System. The company’s refusing to confirm a Variety report that it plans to start sending real-time warnings to illegal downloaders, along with a pop-up message directing them to a legitimate source for the content – essentially irritating users into compliance.

The Menace of Culinary Displacement in ParisParis by MouthAfter a recent morning spent playing restaurant ping-pong via email with my friend Dorie, it dawned on me. We were trying to create an eating itinerary of traditional French bistros for a pair of retired chefs visiting from Oklahoma, and it proved to be a daunting task. Why? These men were coming to France to eat epic Gallic grub-you know, blanquette de veau, boeuf bourguignon, and coq au vin-and even with the difficulty of summer opening hours notwithstanding, it startled me to realize there’s just not a lot of that on offer in Paris anymore.

BUSINESS & INVESTOR NEWS

Dish Sees Subscriber Losses Mount, Blames Higher TV Churn on Price HikeVarietyDish Network dropped 78,000 net subscribers in the second quarter, with the No. 2 satcaster attributing higher cancellations rates to its January rate increase. The company ended the second quarter with 14.014 million pay-TV subscribers compared with 14.061 million in the year-ago period. In the second quarter of 2012, Dish posted a net decline of 10,000 subs. While the second quarter is historically the weakest for pay TV operators, Dish’s contraction is another sign of stress on the sector as consumers…

Third Point Responds to Sony Rejection of Entertainment Spinoff ProposalHollywood ReporterDaniel Loeb-led hedge fund Third Point late Monday responded to Sony Corp.’s decision to reject his proposal for a spinoff of its entertainment business. In a statement, the activist investor’s firm said it would “explore further options” to create shareholder value. But it also said it welcomed Sony’s commitment to greater transparency after the entertainment and consumer electronics conglomerate said it would start disclosing more details about…

T-Mobile to Announce Milestone Quarter, But Can It Last?eWeekT-Mobile on Aug. 8 will announce the results of its fiscal second quarter. It’ll be the company’s first quarter as a publicly traded company, following its merger with MetroPCS, and its first full quarter offering the iPhone. The results should offer an indication of how T-Mobile’s “un-carrier” strategy is so far playing out during what’s been, even just eight months in, surely the most exciting year in the carrier’s history.

No Magic Wand to Deal with Economic Woes: RajanHindustan TimesReserve Bank Governor designate Raghuram G Rajan on Monday said there is no magic wand to pull the country instantly out of challenges being faced by the economy. “These are challenging times for the Indian economy… The government and the RBI are working together to address these challenges. We don’t have a magic wand to make the problems disappear instantaneously. But I have absolutely no doubt, we will deal with them,” he said.

In American Greetings Deal, Echoes of Larger Buyout for DellThe New York TimesThis is a tale of two management-led buyouts. The first is the headline-grabbing $24.4 billion bid by Michael S. Dell and the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners to buy the personal computer maker that Mr. Dell founded. The second is the lesser-known $612 million buyout by the Weiss family of the American Greetings Corporation, the greeting card company they control.

Zillow Revenue Soars, Posts Loss as Costs GrowNBCReal estate website Zillow posted a second-quarter loss on Tuesday as costs ran ahead of big revenue gains tied to the housing market rebound. Its shares slid 9 percent to $81.50 in after-hours trading. The stock has more than tripled this year as the real estate market strengthens, and is up 49 percent in the past three months alone. Zillow also lifted its sales outlook on Tuesday. The company has a database of about 110 million U.S. homes, which potential homebuyers and rentals can search on Zillow’s website. It also offers estimates of home values and other real estate information. It makes money from advertising as well as from real estate agents’ subscriptions.

MARKETING & INNOVATION NEWS

Can Advertising Change India’s Obsession with Fair Skin?The AtlanticIn India, a country where the majority of the population is dark-skinned, there is a widely held belief that dark complexions are inferior to fair ones. This prejudice manifests itself in everything from hiring practices that favor light-skinned employees to matrimonial ads that list fairness as a non-negotiable characteristic of the future bride or groom. In the media, light-skinned actors and models are in high demand, while dark-skinned performers are rarely seen on screen.

Social Savvy: Swarovski, Uniqlo, Nordstrom Top BrandsMedia PostWhen it comes to selling luxury via social media, some brands are far more artful than others, according to a new analysis of social-media platforms from L2’s latest report. The report ranked some 250 prestige brands across 15 social media platforms. Swarovski is batting a thousand and present on all of them, followed by fast-fashion chain Uniqlo, active on 13.

Google Street View Comes Aboard Emirates’ Luxurious A380WiredIf you can’t afford the nearly $20,000 first-class ticket on board the Emirates’ A380, here’s the next best thing: a walk around the cabin courtesy of Google Street View. In celebration of the fifth anniversary of the A380′s launch on Emirates, the airline partnered with Google to bring the first Street View tour of an airliner, and they couldn’t pick a more luxurious plane. Since the A380′s launch in 2008, it’s covered 265 million kilometers over 20,000 trips and served 35 million meals, 6,314 kilos of caviar, 2,153,988 cups of coffee, 14 million bread rolls, and – mercifully – handed out over 1 million toothbrushes while shuttling over 18 million passengers on its 21-strong fleet.

Taco Bell Expands Waffle Taco Breakfast TestThe Los Angeles TimesTaco Bell is testing its popular waffle tacos in more locations starting this week, after the breakfast product sold well in its initial Southern California run. The fast food creation, which features eggs and sausage folded up in a waffle, became the best-selling morning menu item at the five Taco Bell restaurants where it debuted this year. Starting Thursday, the mash-up will expand to 100 eateries in Fresno; Omaha; and Chattanooga, Tenn. – an extension first reported by the Associated Press.

About That Chevy Volt Price CutThe StreetIn a perfect example of lazy journalism, every single news outlet has reported overnight that General Motors cut the base price of the Chevrolet Volt from $40,000 to $35,000. Practically speaking, nobody who bought a Volt over the last year should feel cheated. Why? If Mr. and Ms. Journalist had done their homework, they would have known that ever since August 2012 — one year ago — GM had already offered close to $5,000 off every Volt sold, or implied in attractive $199/month lease offers. In other words, by cutting the base MSRP from $40,000 to $35,000, GM is merely codifying what had been the real-world price for the past year.

Harvard Innovation Lab’s Youngest Team Launches Recommendation Engine SideVenture BeatMany spend their freshman year of college sleeping through Psych 101 and drinking cheap beer at parties. Nithin Tumma, James Ruben, and Neel Patel, however, dedicated their first year to building a startup. This trio of Harvard freshmen launched Side on the Apple store today. Side is mobile application that prompts you with simple, two-choice questions, then recommends products and services based on your responses. You answer a series of two-choice questions about yourself, such as “where would you rather raise your kids” – city or country.

PUBLIC RELATIONS & CORP COMM NEWS

Edelman Ditches Plan to Be a Marketing Services Holding CompanyAd Age Digital NextWhile many big agencies have been expanding their service offerings — and will likely feel further compelled to in the wake of the Publicis-Omnicom merger — Edelman is retrenching to focus on what’s it’s always been known for. For the past two years, the PR giant has been building the foundation for a PR-centric holding company with diversified services. But its CEO, Richard Edelman, now says he’s no longer worried about having a piece of every type of service that makes up the overall marketing pie.

How They Kept It Quiet – The BBC PR Strategy Behind Peter Capaldi Being Named Doctor WhoThe DrumPeter Capaldi will be the 12th actor to officially play The Doctor it was revealed last night in a one-off programme, Doctor Who Live, aired on BBC One. Usually the announcement of the next actor to play the lead in the long-running series is made through an announcement to the media, but the BBC decided to make more of the announcement through a plan to create a buzz in a manner that the term ‘watercooler moment’ doesn’t do justice.

Would the Real Copywriter Please Stand Up?BizcommunityIn a world of SEO (dead or not) and the immediacy of content-to-consumer needed, there seems to be more copy needed than copywriters out there. Never fear, for an article titled How to get high-performance sales copy without hiring a copywriter hit the blogosphere recently. Information like this is priceless and will change the future for Laquisha, the envelope filling entrepreneur, Donathan’s Christmas present opening startup or aunty Martha who believes that her smoked haddock air freshener range is going to make a mint. It’s easy, you see? This white paper on our profession by Christina Gillick says that readers make good writers, so if you read a lot, you can do your own copywriting.

ADVERTISING & MEDIA NEWS

Here’s Why I Think Jeff Bezos Bought The Washington PostBusiness InsiderJeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider, so in the wake of news that he’s buying the Washington Post, folks have been asking me two questions: What’s it like being owned or invested in by Jeff Bezos? Why is Jeff Bezos investing in the news business? (What does it mean?) The answer to the first question is that it’s great to have Jeff Bezos as an investor.

Three Reasons for Jeff Bezos to Buy The Washington PostAd Age Digital NextAfter the shock passed Monday that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had agreed to buy The Washington Post, talk quickly turned to why the billionaire tech innovator would want it. Mr. Bezos is paying $250 million in cash for the Post as well as sibling newspapers including the Fairfax County Times, El Tiempo Latino, Express, The Gazette Newspapers and Southern Maryland Newspapers. He is not acquiring the Washington Post Company’s Slate website or SocialCode, the social marketing agency it owns.

Jeff Bezos’ (Growing) Media EmpireThe AtlanticJeff Bezos is not simply the founder and CEO of Amazon. He is also, via the delightfully named Bezos Expeditions, an investor. Bezos has personally invested in, among many firms, Uber and Airbnb and Makerbot and Teachstreet. He has invested in Glassybaby, a company, according to the Wall Street Journal, “that blows handmade glass cups to hold votive candles.” He is also the founder of the aerospace company Blue Origin. He is also the investor — of $42 million at last count — in a 200-foot-tall, grandfather-style clock that is currently being built in the mountains near his home in Texas.

The Washington Post Sale Further Devalues Newspapers, Say ExpertsThe WrapThe sale of the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos for $250 million on Monday underscores the steeply declining value of American newspapers and is ominous news for other marquee brands that are up for sale including the New York Times and Tribune Co.’s newspapers. The Washington Post’s market cap of $4.2 billion would have suggested a higher price for one of the most distinguished brands in American journalism, according to analysts interviewed by TheWrap.

Vanity Fair: America’s Newspapers Are Getting Bought Up by BillionairesTime MagazineJeff Bezos, founder and CEO of e-commerce behemoth Amazon, has decided to use his personal fortune to purchase the Washington Post newspaper for $250 million. The news falls hard upon the announcement that another iconic American paper – the Boston Globe – was sold to John W. Henry, the billionaire owner of baseball’s Boston Red Sox. And world-famous investor Warren Buffett has spent the past couple of years buying up newspapers such as the Winston-Salem Journal and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The Economics Of Publishing: Print Fire Sales Indicate Analog Dollars Now Worth Only Digital PenniesMedia PostIt’s a fire sale in the print journalism industry, and to use a popular analogy, those with digital capital are gobbling up prized publishing assets at the equivalent of 10 digital cents on the analog dollar. Well, the math may not work out exactly that way, but there’s no question that the sale of three major publishers — The Boston Globe, Newsweek and The Washington Post — in as many days reflects the declining market valuations of important print media, and the rising fortunes of the digital kind. In the most striking of the flurry of print media sales, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced a deal late Monday to acquire the Washington Post Co.’s publishing assets, including flagship newspaper The Washington Post for $250 million.

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Meet the Firm Behind Verizon, AT&T’s Reliability, Speed ClaimsCNETApparently, it takes just two words to rile up wireless giants Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Those words, “most reliable,” set off the latest fracas between the two as both attempted to claim network superiority. With handset selection and phone plans so similar, the carriers are increasingly banking on the reputation of their service quality as the key competitive edge. So Verizon was more than a little perturbed after AT&T co-opted its “most reliable” title.

Samsung’s Smartwatch Shows Up In Trademark Filing As “Galaxy Gear”TechCrunchSamsung filed a newly-discovered trademark with the USPTO dated July 29 for the Galaxy Gear, a name for “wearable digital electronic devices in the form of a wristwatch, wrist band or bangle capable of providing access to the Internet and for sending and receiving phone calls, electronic mails and messages.” It’s as clear a move as Apple applying for an iWatch trademark in various countries around the world that the Korean company is working on a smartwatch. Previous reports have said that Samsung is working on a smartwach device, and technical patents filed for by the company suggest it’s looking at designs with flexible displays…

Comcast Developing Real-Time Anti-Piracy Scheme to Push Legal ContentTech Spot Comcast is working an alternative to the so-called “six strikes” copyright alert system (CAS) that launched earlier this year in the US, according to a report on Variety. The system involves sending real-time warnings to illegal downloaders, along with a pop-up message indicating them where to buy or rent the content. The thinking is that giving people accessible, affordable alternatives to illegal downloading will reduce infringement. Variety says the still-to-be-named scheme could be implemented alongside the current six strikes model, in which most major ISPs including Comcast already participate.

About Us
This blog is provided by CommPRO Global, Inc. (CommPRO) to give visitors the opportunity to read about events and share opinions for those interested in the integrated communications business sectors.